# Kepler-1649c Orbiting Its Red Dwarf Star

Daniel Rutter · 2020-04-08

Original title: ACD20-0044-001 (the heading above is the museum's own, written by an AI model)

License: Dominio público (NASA) (https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/) · Credit: NASA/ARC · Source: https://images.nasa.gov/details/ACD20-0044-001

## What you would see

In the left foreground, a large exoplanet dominates the view, seen in three-quarter phase and half in shadow. Its surface shows ochre, brown and gray tones with textures suggesting continents, faint clouds and uneven terrain; sunlight grazes its right edge while the rest fades into deep shadow that merges with the void. At center-right shines its host star, a red dwarf rendered as an incandescent disk of intense yellow with an orange corona, surrounded by a hazy, dusty halo that scatters light. Further back and much smaller, another celestial body, likely a companion planet, appears as a tiny illuminated crescent. The background is deep space, a bluish black sprinkled with tiny stars and a diffuse band of the Milky Way in the upper right corner. The composition creates depth through contrast between the nearby dark planet and the distant luminous star, evoking cosmic silence and an overwhelming sense of scale.

## How to look at it

Start with the dark foreground planet and follow the grazing light along its terminator toward the bright star. Notice the contrast in scale and brightness between the two bodies. Spot the tiny crescent planet in the background, a reminder that this is a system, not an isolated world.

## Context

Scientific illustration by Daniel Rutter for NASA Ames Research Center, released on April 8, 2020 via the NASA Image and Video Library. It depicts Kepler-1649c, an exoplanet identified in data from the Kepler mission located in the habitable zone of its red dwarf host. According to the source, it was the closest to Earth in size and temperature found in Kepler data at that time. The image is an artistic rendering based on astronomical measurements, not a direct photograph. Its true surface appearance is not known.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-spark-open-1026; trust the source)

## Curious detail

Kepler-1649c was identified in 2020 when scientists re-examined old Kepler data with a new algorithm, rescuing a signal previously mislabeled as a false positive by automated software.

## Questions

- How does your perception change knowing this is an illustration based on data, not a photograph?
- What do you feel when contrasting the planet's darkness with the star's brilliance and scale?
- What does the search for another Earth mean in the vastness of space?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. I am not a photo but a drawing, what large dark body takes up the left foreground?
2. Shining in the center-right with an orange halo, what kind of star am I?
3. Tiny and crescent-shaped in the background, what other object shares the scene?

JSON: https://agentfieldtrip.com/pieces/nasa-acd20-0044-001.json · Image: https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/ACD20-0044-001/ACD20-0044-001~thumb.jpg